Climate Change:Tropical Cyclones, ENSO and the Spheres

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The ESP (Earth Systems Project) is also an event held during IESO2022, which requests international groups of students to investigate one of the four topics on Earth System Phenomena and make presentation to the International Jury. The topic I selected was Climate Change’s Effects on Natural Hazards (one of the four topics provided by the committee) and then I was assigined to a group where students also chose this topic. My teammates were from Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Australia and UAE, and we chose to work on climate change’s impact on tropical cyclones specifically.

Myself Ziyan Fang and team 18 group members will be presenting our Earth science project. For our Earth systems project, we investigated how tropical storms are connected to phenomena such as climate change and the El Niño Southern Oscillation. We also looked at how this affects Earth’s systems.
Our topic was to investigate the impacts of climate change on natural hazards. For something to be a natural hazard, it has to be a natural event with potential negative impacts on society. A very large number of phenomena fit these criteria, and are not just limited to earthquakes, tropical cyclones, volcanic eruptions, sandstorms, floods and drought, but each one has complex connections to Earth’s systems and to climate change. For this reason, we decided to focus just on one topic for our project and hope to cover it more in depth. We chose to investigate the natural hazard of tropical storms, which are known as tropical cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons depending on where they originate.

Information about Climate Change

To understand how climate change would influence tropical cyclones, we first need to get some basic information about climate change. Our climate system is controlled by plenty of mechanisms, including plate position, Milankovitch cycle, thermohaline circulation, solar activity, volcanic activity, greenhouse effect, ect., among which the first five are mainly long-term or mid-term mechanisms, whilst the final one, greenhouse effect, is the one dominating the change of climate in the recent one hundred years. It refers to the effect that some gas molecules containing two or more atoms of different elements would have net change in the distribution of their electrical charges when they vibrate, and hence can absorb and emit the infrared radiation and subsequently warm the earth’s surface.

From the chart on the left we could see that the gases that contribute most to the greenhouse effect and climate change re CO2, CH4 and NO2, whose concentration ratios have largely increased since the industrial revolution.
In fact, the current climate change is also supported by evidence from all aspects. According to IPCC AR5, our earth is undergoing a series of phenomena including increased surface temperature, fastened water circulation, melting glaciers, decreased seawater PH, and so on, which disturbs our original climate patterns and alters the intensity and distribution of natural disasters, of which tropical cyclones would be a typical one that is closely associated with human society. So, specifically, how will climate change affect tropical cyclones and lead to further impacts on different spheres in the earth system? To answer this question, we must first get some information about tropical cyclones.

Information about Tropical Cyclone

A tropical cyclone is a cloud-rotating storm and a warm low pressure system. Tropical cyclones rotate due to the Coriolis force in the ocean where the temperature of the ocean water is at least 27°C. Tropical cyclones form in warm regions a short distance from the equator.
Let me explain how tropical cyclones form. First, the seawater is heated, and the water evaporates to form water vapour. In the tropics, where temperatures are higher, the atmosphere can contain more water vapour. Next, the evaporated water vapour collects and rises in a spinning motion. After that, it is cooled by the cold upper air and clouds form. As the rising air currents send more and more water vapour into the air, the clouds become warmer and warmer to form cumulonimbus clouds. At this time, a large amount of vapour becomes water, which releases a large amount of latent heat. This heat warms the air around it, making the updraft stronger and the atmospheric pressure lower. This repetition produces tropical cyclones.

Climate change’s impact on tropical cyclone
Frequency: There is evidence that the frequency of tropical cyclones has decreased since industrialisation. There has been a 13% decrease in tropical cyclone frequency between the 1850-1900 period and the 1900-2012 period (Thompson, 2022). The graphs on the slide demonstrate a negative trend for the frequency. A possible reason for this is that climate change can weaken the circulation of Hadley and Walker cells. This is hypothesised to produce less favourable conditions for the formation of tropical cyclones, reducing the number of tropical cyclones that have formed. Another potential reason is the increase in maximum humidity of air due to temperature rise. To form a cyclone near saturation from the surface to a height of 5–7 km is a necessary condition for tropical cyclone development. And due to the increase in absolute humidity it is harder to reach the near saturation level within the specific height and we are seeing a decreasing trend in the numbers of cyclones forming.

Intensity: It is much more agreed that climate change increases the intensity of tropical storms. This may be because an increased temperature leads to increased evaporation and thus more warm air rising and more moisture. When the tropical cyclone has more moisture it can intensify its impact through increased precipitation. The plots project a lower frequency of tropical cyclones in all regions, but an increased intensity and rain rate in all regions. This projection is for an increase in global temperature of 2 degrees celsius.

Location: As global temperatures increase, the temperatures required to form tropical cyclones move closer to the poles. Therefore, the latitude of maximum intensity is getting closer to the poles. Between 1982 and 2009, the average location of Northern hemisphere tropical storms has moved north by 53km, and Southern hemisphere tropical storms have moved south by 60km. Moreover, the change in vertical wind shear change is causing rapid intensification at some regions.

Tropical cyclones’ effect to El nino

As you know, the ENSO, El Niño-Southern Oscillation is the interaction of hydrosphere and atmosphere in the southern pacific ocean. El Niño and La Niña are the warm and cool phases of a recurring climate pattern across the tropical Pacific. The pattern shifts back and forth irregularly every two to seven years, and each phase triggers predictable disruptions of temperature, precipitation. These changes hugely interact with the earth systems’ tendency.

How can the tropical cyclones modulate ENSO? There are two main effects intensify the El nino.

These are the schematic diagrams of the modulation of running 3-month mean SST intensity for the Niño 3.4 region by tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific.
The light blue circle, Walker circulation is weakened by the direct effect of asymmetrically anomalous westerlies within light blue thick arrows related with TCs at lower tropospheric levels and by the indirect effect of the Hadley-like circulation (red circle) over the tropical western Pacific. Moreover, red dashed curve shows TCs can shallow the thermocline in the tropical western Pacific (pink curve indicates the thermocline without TCs and blue solid line the climatological thermocline). Enhanced eastward-propagating equatorial Kelvin waves (red wavy arrow, pink wavy arrow indicates the Kelvin wave without TCs carries warm water eastward, further deepening the thermocline in the tropical eastern Pacific, thereby reducing the gradient of the zonal thermocline in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

In the picture, you can see the zonal eastern wind in the southern pacific ocean enhancement during the main duration of the cyclone. Changes of ENSO due to tropical cyclones could induce Unprecedented abnormal weather.

Interactions of spheres in a tropical cyclone

So, let’s talk about tropical cyclone affect our atmosphere.

A tropical cyclone is like a giant, atmospheric heat engine. The moisture from the warm ocean acts as its fuel, generating huge amounts of energy as clouds form.
The rotating thunderstorms form spiral rainbands around the eye of the cyclone where the strongest winds and heaviest rain are found, known as the eye wall, transporting heat 15 km or higher into the atmosphere. The drier cooler air at the top of the atmosphere becomes the exhaust gas of the heat engine.

This picture shows increasing wind speed and precipitation around a tropical cyclone. This data is from hurricane Katrina that occurred in August 2005. As you can see, the increased precipitation followed the track of the cyclone. And you can see also, there is increasing wind speed around the cyclone. So, what is the effect?

Strong winds in tropical cyclones lead to large waves on the sea called storm surges. So, What is a storm surge actually? Storm surge is an abnormal rise in sea level above the normal tide levels, and can be thought of as the change in the water level due to the presence of a storm. The height of the storm surge varies depending on how strong the cyclone is. The faster the wind speed, the higher the storm surge that is generated. We got the Katrina TC’s wind speed is SS5, which can generate storm surge up to 24 feet.

When storm surges move to the coast, they erode the Earth’s crust and sediments. This can change the topography of the coast. As you can see in this picture, the coastline pushes further into the land. Plus, Climate change causes sea level rise, making storm surges reach even higher in relation to land, making storm surge even more destructive. If the tc enters even farther to land (Hurricane Maria), it causes many massive landslides as you can see in the picture.

Tropical cyclones damage biological organisms, especially near the coast. Storm surges can cause flooding for a few days. Populations of organisms that can’t defend themselves and adapt through this change will be decreased. This causes secondary succession, where organisms that can adapt to tropical cyclone conditions become more abundant. This phenomenon changes the ecology of the area.

Tropical cyclones and storm surges also cause many human fatalities, especially near the coast. We took data of fatalities caused by the dangerous tropical cyclone bhola. The human fatalities are 300k-500k. Imagine, with this climate change causing the increased intensity of tropical cyclones, how many more lives will fall if we don’t prevent climate change.

Conclusion

Tropical cyclones are a natural hazard with the ability to cause widespread damage. The growing phenomenon of climate change amplifies these devastating effects by increasing their intensity, but not their frequency. This has follow-on consequences for all of earth’s systems, showing that Earth’s spheres are all connected. Tropical cyclones cause and are driven by atmospheric phenomena such as wind and cloud and storm formation. They interact with the hydrosphere because they are formed from the evaporation from water bodies, and cause precipitation. Tropical storms and their storm surges interact with the geosphere by eroding sediments from the coastline, possibly causing landslides. They also interact with the biosphere by damaging organism populations, including human populations, and can alter the ecology of an area. The Earth is an interconnected system, and this investigation of tropical storms has found links to climate change and all four of Earth’s systems. Thank you.

My Earth System Pledge about Climatology

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The “Earth System Pledge” is one of the projects held during the International Earth Science Olympiad, which requests students to write a short production explaining how they would like to use their knowledge and skills in the future. The article posted below is my pledge. There is a limit for words to be written, hence I choose to express and describe my interest in a specific subject, Climatology.

I’ve always been fascinated by the complexity and sophistication of our climate system. It has constantly undergone changes during the geological history – there were ice ages, high temperatures, and millions of years of heavy rain. This leads some to conclude that, today’s “slight” temperature rise is not likely to impose considerable influences on humans. However, global warming is more than just a simple increase in temperature. Its effects are felt across all Earth systems: rising sea levels flood coastal areas; Disrupted weather systems bring more frequent extreme days; Species are forced to adapt to changing living conditions, and some are even threatened with extinction……

Under the background of climate change, can we, fragile human beings, successfully adapt to the great change in the ecological system we live by? That’s the question I pledge to answer in the future. To this end, I will learn to reconstruct the historical climate change model using evidence such as ice cores and foraminifer; I will use computer tools to analyze its potential impacts and future trends; I will assess and practice existing mitigation strategies including carbon neutrality and pollution reduction, while also dedicate in designing other mitigation measures; Last but not least, I will focus on the social context behind climate change, striving to ensure the interests of more stakeholders.

With the allegiance to this planet, I pledge to work with thousands of earth scientists together, to study its history, focus on its present, and eventually, create its future.

Ziyan Fang, China

My Awards of International Earth Science Olympiad

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The 15th IESO (International Earth Science Olympiad) was hosted by Aosta, Italy, from August 25 to 31. More than 200 contestants from 41 countries and regions took part in it, enjoying the seven events held during the olympiad. In the 4 competitions which there are gold, silver, and bronze medals to be awarded, I was glad to win ELSI (Earth Learning Students’ Ideas) gold medal, NTFI (National Team Field Investigation) bronze medal, DMT (Data Mining Test) silver medal and ESP (Earth System Project bronze medal. The following is my award certificates, whilst the detailed introduction of and my production for each event will be presented in the following articles.

A comparasion of two online college courses that I took

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COURSE 1: Our Earth: Its Climate, Process and History provided by the University of Manchester on Coursera

Develop a greater appreciation for how the air, water, land, and life formed and have interacted over the last 4.5 billion years.

COURSE 2: Physical Geology provided by Nanjing University on MOOC

This is an enlightenment course to understand the characteristics and evolution of the earth. Its purpose is to cultivate students’ interest in geosciences, to lay a foundation for subsequent study of specialized courses and to engage in geosciences research in the future.

My Certificate

Lecture Structure

Our Earth:

  • WEEK1: Building Blocks of Earth’s Climate System
  • WEEK2: Formation, evolution, and process of the solid Earth
  • WEEK3: Water in Earth’s Climate System: Oceans, Atmosphere, and Cryosphere
  • WEEK4: Life, and its Effect on Earth’s Climate System
  • WEEK5: Build Your Own Earth and Conclusion

Physical Geology:

Course Format

Our Earth: The course is mainly taught by Prof. David M. Schultz, Professor of Synoptic Meteorology. In the vedio, he often teaches alone with his slide, while occasionally he also invites other relevant faculty members (such as geochemistry professors, or laboratory researchers) to introduce more specific content through their conversation.

Physical Geology: This course is a video of Professor Shu Liangshu’s class giving to the students at NTU.

Assessment

Our Earth:

  • Multiple Choices (Single Answer & Multiple Answer)
  • A self-designed model: This is not compulsory, but students can build models on their own under the instruction of videos.

Physical Geology:

  • Multiple Choices (Single Answer)
  • True-or-false Questions: Judgment on some important key points which are easy to confuse students
  • Discussions: Often related to key points taught in course, occasionally are open questions.

Other Resources

Our Earth: Provide an activity called BYOE (build your own earth), which is a vision that they have to engage students in understanding the controls on Earth’s climate. Their vision is for us students to selecting the features we want: distance from the Sun, tilt of the axis, location of continents, oceans and mountains, rotation rate, atmospheric composition, etc. We would enter these characteristics on a web page, push the “Go” button, and a climate model would run in the background and produce the climate on that world for us. However, such a vision is not currently possible with the speed of today’s computers. Hence instead, they preselected about 50 Earths, did the computer simulations already, and prepared plots of the simulation results for students to examine.

http://www.buildyourownearth.com/

Physical Geology: The whole set of courses mainly revolves around Professor Shu Liangshu’s “Physical Geology”, which is also the most commonly used compulsory textbook for all geological major students in China. At the same time, Professor Shu also provided his courseware, summary of knowledge points, and some exercises for students’ self-study.

My Feedback

“Our Earth” is a popular science and professional course, in which Professor David M. Schultz introduce plenty of basic knowledge of earth science to students in a simple and clear way. This was my first exposure to university courses as well as my first time I learned about earth sciences in English, which successfully intrigue my interest in this subject. The course includes a lively atmosphere. The professor gives a variety of vivid examples to help us understand the abstruse key points. He also tries to create a lively teaching and studying atmosphere through his conversation with other professors or showing us around the school laboratory in the video, etc. After taking this course, I re-understood how the Earth works and its characteristics in a systematic way. Meanwhile, I also realized that the university curriculum will provide children with more space for independent inquiry than the high school ones, as the teacher will not provide a large number of questions for exam or practice. In addition, I was fascinated by the final model designing. Even though it’s not compulsory, I still find this model very meaningful as it allows me to understand in a more intuitive way how different propertys affect a planet’s climate patterns.

In contrast, the “Physical Geology” course is more traditional. Professor Shu introduced a great amount of basic principles of earth sciences (especially geology), which is relatively in-depth and professional. What attracted me most was that, after introducing almost every key point, Mr. Shu would show a large number of pictures - which were all taken by him during the field trip. Through this, I realized that the knowledge we learned in textbooks can be applied to explain a variety of phenomena in real life, and perhaps whis is the meaning of studying geology. I also look forward to the day when I will be able to integrate principles and our daily life like what Professor Shu can do, and explain the world with the theories I have learned.

HOW CAN SHENYANG BID FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

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HOW CAN SHENYANG BID FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

– a city case study in foreign teacher’s class

We have a weekly lesson with a foreign teacher who will share some of the local culture and helps us to improve our English and thinking.

This year our foreign teacher, JBrown, ask us to do a final assignment which was a 5-minite group presentation. In this presentation we will be representing a Chinese city applying for the right to host the Olympic Games in 2036. The content was free to play with, but of course, the most important thing was to present the merits of the city. After the presentation, our teacher will choose the city that he judges to be “successful in its bid” and will give the group an A* – the highest score in the class.

The city was not chosen freely by us students. JBrown had prepared some pieces of paper with the names of big cities in China for us to draw - and we needed to be on behalf of the city we had drawn. Many students were satisfied that they had drawn political and economic centres or global mega-cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing. Unfortunately, the city we drew was Shenyang - a very invisible provincial capital city facing all the problems that come with post-industrialisation. All of our friends persuaded my teammates and I to ask JBrown for re-drawing (we had one chance to re-choose, while all the other students in the class who had drawn Shenyang had all re-drawn other cities). However, we did not use this opportunity. After discussion, we decided that the Olympics did not have to be held in the most economically developed cities, and that each city had its own unique advantages. What we needed to do was to explore the city’s characteristics in depth and give it meaning to host the Olympics.

It is also because our city does not have the same economic advantages as the others, so instead of simply describing its economic development as a showcase of the city’s strengths, as other students did, we chose to take a holistic approach (e.g. geography, cultural support, venue arrangements, what legacy the Olympics will leave for the city, etc.). We searched a lot of information and images when researching the advantages of Shenyang’s location, and referred to the statements and plans of many cities that had successfully bid for the Olympics in the past when writing the programme and the significance of the event. Finally, we consolidated all the ideas and constantly revised our language presentation to try to make our presentation more organised and logical. Our slides, part of our presentation, will be attached to the text. In the end, our city came out on top and ‘successfully bid for the Olympics’, winning first place in the class.

The other students complimented our group afterwards, saying, “They were so good that in their hands, even Shenyang could successfully bid for the Olympics.” We were really happy, not only because we got an A*, but also because we did our best to complete the case study despite not drawing the most favourable city, and eventually ended up with a surprising result. In the process, my teammates and I also learned how to work together, how to analyse the problem, how to find the perspective of the case study and how to find reference sources.

Shenyang’s bidding for the Olympic Games

produced by Anna, Mckenna, Sherry, Fiona

The Olympic Games is an event of great importance, and it’s our pleasure to compete for the opportunity to host the Games in 2036 here as the representatives of Shenyang. We are going to introduce our city’s strengths from various aspects.

socio-economic advantages

  1. As the largest central city in northeast China, Shenyang can no doubt provide sufficient financial support for the game.
  1. Also, riching in natural resources, Shenyang is one of the most important industrial centres in China. Its recently flourished high-tech industries is also greatly helpful to provide technical support for the construction of Olympic venues and the arrangement of sporting events.
  1. Furthermore, Shenyang is a transportation hub in China. Many important railway trunk lines pass through it, and the Liao River facilitates its water transport.

location

  1. Apart from the socio-economic advantages, Shenyang’s location is very suitable as well. It has the temperate monsoon climate with average summer temperatures of less than 30 degrees. At the same time, there won’t be frequent rainy days. This comfortable weather can allow athletes to perform at their best.
  1. What’s more, situated in the Northeast Plain, Shenyang has a flat and wide-open terrain, which makes it possible to provide concentrated venues.

Support

Sustainability

Legacy

We promise that all of these infrastructures will continue to fulfill their missions after the Olympic Games —- that is to boost the economy and sports industry in Shenyang. We hope that Shenyang can be known to the world not only for its industrial development, but also for its dynamic image of a “sports city” through the 2036 Olympic Games. We promise that all stadiums will be open to the public after the Games, providing more space and facilities for citizens to do exercise. The improved transportation network and airport will help to enhance the level of communication and collaboration between Shenyang and other cities in the world, converting Shenyang into a cosmopolitan city. Besides, the measure of adopting renewable energy will be stuck to and spread out. We have drawn up a detailed and gradual scheme for the application of renewable energy in transport, medicine, sports industry and many other fields, making Shenyang a green city. We believe that the combination of the Olympics and Shenyang will not only enhance the city’s image, but also breathes life into this historical sports event. As the capital city of Liaoning province, Shenyang will play a leading role in Northeast China to develop sports industry and spread Olympic culture in the process. Moreover, Shenyang will serve as a model for developing countries to raise their international status, encouraging more industrial cities to take part in sports events and broadening the value of the Olympics.

Shenyang has made full preparation for the 2036 Olympic Games, dedicated to holding them with credibility, support and sustainability. We believe that the encounter between the Olympics and Shenyang will burst out a brilliant spark, which will be unforgettable in the history of the Olympic Games and the history of globalization.

A visit to the Museum of Paleontology

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Last week was Science and Technology Week of our school, during which the Biology and Geography teaching and researching group offered some of our students a chance to visit the Nanjing Museum of Palaeontology, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity. That weekend, our Chinese teacher assigned an informal essay, and I wrote the reflections on the visit and my thoughts on studying Geography. Later, that essay received a quite high mark - I realised from reading my Chinese teacher’s comments that her husband is a geography teacher, and she got touched by my enthusiasm. I never think I’m a good writer or a profound thinker, but I did want to translate and post this article here, as a way of recording of my little reflections as I am growing up.

A visit to the Museum of Paleontology

Fang Ziyan Class 7

Cold front crossing.

Rolling stratus clouds.

The sunlight lovingly linger on the autumn day.

I.

In May of Grade 10, I finally decided that I wanted to apply for a Geography major in the future. Although I had been preparing to apply to the UK for nearly a year, it was still a little late to decide on this major. However, the more I tried it, the more I felt I was suited to it, and then it became an overwhelming passion. Within five months, I had read some books and accumulated some knowledge. The museum visit organised by the our school’s geography and biology teaching and researching groups was a even good opportunity to practise.

I had memorised so many theories, but it wasn’t until I stood in front of a whole wall of fossils of different shapes and colours that I understood the meaning of the words in black and white. For example, I recognised the rounded spiral shape of ammonite, but I didn’t know that it had evolved from hornblende: the long, pointed shell of hornblende make it not easy for them to balance themselves, so the pointed shell eventually developed into a flat shell of ammonite. What’s more, I had of course recited that the ammoite was the standard fossil with a fast rate of evolution and a short existence time, but by asking the docents I learned that it did not survive the Cretaceous extinction because the acidic seawater made the calcium brittle and caused it to become less resistant to pressure.

From being a little kid hanging out in museum galleries and illustrations in encyclopaedias, to being an afterthought in choosing a specialisation and learning loads of related knowledge, to now hanging out in museum galleries again with a few geology-loving kids with me and asking a series of questions to the docents: Your vision determines your choices, and your choices again determine your vision.

II.

Step ahead into the second year of high school, students around me began to get anxious. There is always endless homework and frequent exams. For those of us who are studying in ordinary Chinese high schools and want to apply for foreign universities, it is really challenging to not only follow the courses of gaokao (the college entrance examination of China) but also learn foreign high school courses on our own. In addition, although I love my major, geography, there are quite few people around me who apply for it, so I feel a little lonely sometimes.
Interestingly, however, it’s not like what people always say – “You might find solace from something other than studying, e.g. travalling, playing video games, to ease your anxiety.”

Sometimes the solace comes from your major itself. No matter how you grumble the boring life you might face in order to successfully apply for it, if you love it enough, it will embrance you back with its own little philosophies - as an antidote to your anxiety.

Walking around the museum, I gained new insights into many familiar knowledge. Think of the five great biological extinctions, always followed by an explosion of new creature. Think of the Milankovitch and Wilsonian gyrations, everything separate and emerge again and again. Think of the red junipers on top of the mountains, sweeping the clouds from the fog and sleeping on the moon for thousands of years. Think of the sands of the desert, with the sun rises and the moon sinks, only to be silent. Think of the basalt cape, with the tide rises and falls, the waves open and close, only to stands still. Why worry that there are no companions? Why be anxious about the boring and tiring endless days?

III.

There are times when I want to ask myself, where do my passion for the subject of geography come from?

When I was a child, my grandfather loved to study with an Atlas of China, and every time I went out on public transport he would tell me about the traffic routes. Kindergarten overs early every day, so he would always take me around Nanjing on his bicycle to various places of interest. I also remember that my favourite set of books as a child was the Encyclopaedia my mother bought me, which talked about the earth and the universe and had all kinds of restored pictures of ancient creatures. Also, every summer and winter, I always had the opportunity to go back to my hometown in Anhui, to see the mountains and fields, to watch the fireworks under the stars, and to listen to the adults in the village chat happily about the minutiae of their lives: how the weather affected the harvest, how much money they made from selling vegetables, which mountain to climb tomorrow, and whose field was going to be used by the town for constructing buildings. Perhaps this is why I had more experience of enjoying thenature and living in the town than other city children. Also, probably one of the most important things is that my dad is a crazy travel lover. There’s no denying that the days spent travelling with him to Europe, the USA, Japan and Korea and many of the provinces in China have become become a thick background of my life.

IV.

On the way back to school, sky is clear, clouds are light, trees are bright yellow. The wind blows, and the ginkgo leaves fell in a shallow warm sun.

The ginkgo is the seven-million-year-old ginkgo.

The sun is the eternal sun.

A speech about GLOBAL WARMING in English class

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I delievered a 20-minute speech in our English class this Thursday. Though it was a really long speech, my classmates listened very carefully. After the speech, my English teacher asked them several questions to check whether they have learned anything it. Surprisingly, many of my classmates could repeat the framework and even content of my speech, which made me both moved and pleased. Some of my friends wanted me to send my powerpoint slide to them online because they got pretty interested in this topic and hoped to do some further study.Though I don’t think my research is comprehensive enough for the limited preparation time, helping classmates broaden their horizons and arosing their interest in this important topic was truly a satisfactory thing for me. The following is my speech and PPT slide.

GLOBAL WARMING

Good afternoon everyone. The 2021 Nobel Prize in physics amazed phycis lovers all over the world. It is the first time that Nobel Prize in physics was given to meteorology. You can see here that two of this year’s prize winners are meteorologists, which means who study the whether system and climate system. The Nobel committee’s decision seems can prove that climate change has become one of the severe issues affecting human society.

Today I would like to introduce you the main cause of climate change——global warming. I’m going to explain how global warming is formed, what crises it will lead to, and our solutions to this issue.

1. Cause of global warming

First let’s see how global warming is formed. For 2.5 million years the Earth’s climate has fluctuated, cycling from ice ages to warmer periods, but in the last century the planets’ temperature has risen unusually fast. Scientists believe it’s human activity that’s driving the temperatures up, a process known as ‘global warming’.

Ever since the industrial revolution began, factories, power plants and eventually cars have burned fossil fuels such as oil and pull, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere.

These greenhouse gases trap heat near the earth through a naturally occurring process called the greenhouse effect, which means they trap some of the energy the earth radiates and reflect it back, warming the earth. Scientists now believe that the greenhouse effect is being intensified by the extra greenhouse gases that humans have released.

2. Crises caused by global warming


Some of you might ask, it’s normal for the temperature to have a slight change. We’ve experienced colder days and hotter days. A little bit of temperature rise seems won’t affect us that much.

However, that’s not the case. The speed of warming is unequal for different places on the earth, and among which the fastest ones are the polar areas. According to the polar amplification effect, if the earth’s temperature increase 2℃, then the temperature in polar areas will increase at least 10℃. You could see here the change of area covered by ice in north pole from 1975 to 2020.

As the ice melts, sea level rises, flooding coastal areas around the world. And we know that coastal areas are often important trade centers, for instance Shanghai and New York. What’s more, permafrost, which means frozen soil, will also melt and emit more carbon because there are methane(CH4) inside, which is another kind of greenhouse gases. Thirdly, as ice melts, the inhabitat for animals in polar areas is rapidly decreasing, and hence some species including the polar bear would face the danger of extinction.

We could see that all these three crises are caused by the rising temperature. However, does global warming only mean increasing temperature? Let’s see another example.

In February 2021, in the midst of rapidly warming global temperatures, an exceptionally severe cold wave hit large parts of North America, from Canada to Northern Mexico, leaving 10 million people without power. It was the coldest February In the U.S. in more than 30 years. Donald Trump posted a Twitter to complain about the cold wave and question the global warming. For example, he said:”windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!” He never believes in the existence of global warming, and he thinks ‘global warming’ and ‘extreme cold’ are totally unrelated things. However, that’s not the case.

In fact, it is the global warming that lead to this extreme cold. Actually, global warming will cause something called Unusual Planetary Wave Patterns, you can understand it as the distortion of climate system. And hence global warming will not only leads to extreme hot, it will also lead to extreme cold, extreme dry, extreme wet, etc. This theory is very complex and it’s hard to explain, but I will give you some examples to help you understand better.

We know that Brazil is in South America and there is a famous forest called Amazon rainforest. Rising temperatures resultes in less rainfall brought by the ocean currents, hence Brazil is getting drier and drier. Drought, high temperature, rainforest——what would happen? Forest fire. This is a picture of South America in 2019, the red point indicating there was a forestfire.

Circumstance in Australia is very similar. The four-month fire killed 3 billion animals and set Australia’s highest temperature on record for three days in a row.

Now let’s see the extreme cold in America. We mentioned that global warming can lead to disorders of the climate system, and among which one consequence is the spread of cold air over the Arctic. (This may be a little difficult to understand. You don’t need to understand why, it’s just a result.) What’s more, we know that there are mountains on the east and west sides of North America, and there is a plain in the middle, so the cold air from the Arctic does not spread on the west-east direction. As a result, cold air is concentrated in the center areas herr, leading to the extreme cold in the United States in February.

We’ve discussed about two kinds of crises that global warming may result in —— firstly, the rising temperature and its further consequences shows that global warming is part of climate change; secondly, global warming is also a cause of climate change as it leads to the distortion of climate system. Last but not least, I want to say that global warming is a cause of further global warming as well. As ice melts, rocks are exposed, which is easier to absorb heat. Permafrost melts, emitting methane(CH4), which is another greenhouse gas. AS global wildfire season extends, there are less trees and hence less carbon will be absorbed…… And all of these consequences will again intensify the global warming.

3. How to deal with global warming?

Finally, let us discuss how to deal with global warming and climate change. I don’t know whether you’ve ever followed the climate conferences, but at least for me, sometimes the climate conference is not like a meeting, it’s more of a quarreling. Every country has its own opinions. Last year, the United States even formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement. As global warming is such a severe issue, why it is so hard for countries to reach a consensus on solving it?

Nowadays an important way to deal with global warming is to limit carbon emissions. Carbon emission permits are given to each country according to their national circumstances. If the country doesn’t run use up all of their carbon permits, they can sell them to other countries; on the contrary, if a country’s carbon emission permit is not enough to use, then it has to buy from others.

In fact, developing countries, for example China and India, are currently the countries which emit the most carbon because of industrial production. On the other hand, developed countries have entered the post-industrial era with less carbon emissions, as they don’t need such large scale of industrial production and they have also developed some green technologies. For the developing countries, limiting carbon emissions actually means limiting development. But the developed countries won’t be restricted in this way. They can even sell permits unused to other countries and hence gain profit.

Thirdly, some island nations and a few coastal countries in Africa have a different idea: they are extreme environmentalists. They don’t have the need for industrial production, right? Some of them are in still in primary society or mainly depends on agricultural development. Hence they are also not afraid for the carbon emission limitation. However, these countries are close to the ocean and can easily be flooded once sea levels rise, so they are not satisfied with the current temperature target set by the United Nation(2℃) and are always requiring for a stricker target, 1.5℃ for example.

4. Summary

To summarize today’s speech, we have learned that it is human activity that caused global warming, and there are several crises that it may lead to. Firstly, global warming will directly result in rising temperature, which is part of climate change. Secondly, global warming is also a cause of climate change as it leads to the distortion of climate system. Lastly, global warming is a cause of further global warming as well. However, each country has its own idea on how to deal with this severe issue. Though fighting with global warming might be an arduous journey, I am still confident that us human-being have the wisdom and the ablility to save ourselves. That’s all of my speech, thank you for your patient listening.

A national speech about Linguistics Society Operation

Guestbook

This term I have set up a linguistics club with Yibo Zhao. He is the president and is responsible for the production of posters and the preparation of linguistics presentations. I am the vice president and am also the national campus ambassador for linguistics, responsible for leading the club menbers to practice for the International Olympics Linguistic and writing summaries and reports on our activities to be submitted to the committee of IOLC (International Olympics Linguistic China). Our club has been well received by the students since its inception and we have held many successful events, which has helped us to maintain our first place in the national ranking of clubs. At the end of November, the IOLC committee invited me to give an online talk to linguistics club leaders across the country about my experience and that of our club. I then completed a speech draft below, which includes my thoughts on running a society, some of the activities I have organised with Yibo, and some event references for other club presidents.

(p.s. I have posted the link of my sharing speech and the video of our club activity and the end of this article. My powerpoint slide has also been appended.)

Hello everyone, I am Fang Ziyan, the vice president of the Linguistics Society of Nanjing Foreign Language School. Its my pleasure to make this speech here. Our club has just been established this year, so as a founder of a new club, I am willing to share with you about some of the experiences I have gained during my exploration.
There will be a number of specific activity design references in my sharing, but before that, I would like to say something about the underlying logic of club operations.

(A) The Underlying Logic of Society Operation

I often reflect on a question. Why do we always write flowery hanrangue to present our establishment purpose when applying for the club, but often feel that these sonorous and powerful words look kind of hollow and unrealistic? Why do we always initially plan the school year club activities with fully enthusiasm, but eventually have to face the frustration that the gap between our imagination and the reality is too large?
I think that many society operators will encounter such confusion. So today, I want to start from the underlying logic of society operation and discuss what a truly “excellent” student society should be like.

First, let us return to the definition of a society. What we call a club, or a society, is actually an organization formed by people who have certain common characteristics and hobbies. Here, there are two key words, the first is “common characteristics” and the second is “people”. When we design activities, our ideas often start from this “common characteristics”, thinking about which linguistic-related activities can be organized, including field research, lecture, project study, etc. However, we often find these ideas unrealistic for senior high students to carry out. Hence now, let us change our ways of thinking, from the aspect of “people”—— those who are interested in our society, and the schoolmates around us. What kind of needs do they have? What kind of knowledge and experience are they yearn for through linguistic club activities?

Take our school for example. We faced an important question when we planned to established the society: Who is this society for? There are roughly three types of students in our school: students going abroad for college study, students who will be recommended by school to language majors in top universities in China, and students preparing for the college entrance examination. Our current president Zhao is students applying for language majors, and I am a student preparing to go abroad. Zhao said, our school’s recommended students will learn English, German, French, Japanese or other minor languages in college, however many of them are unfamiliar with their future majors because they often dedicate a lot to mathematics, physics or chemistry competitions in order to get the qualification to be recommended by our school. Hence Zhao suggested that we can popularize some knowledge that these students have better to master or are about to learn in the university for them through this society. On the other hand, as a student who have participated in the International Olympics Linguistic, I deeply understand the difficulty of preparing the competition alone, not to mention the fact that Nanjing Foreign Language School has loads of IOL contestants but no communication platform is there for them. Hence, I hope to provide some sharing to the students preparing for IOL. After discussion, Zhao and I decide that instead of working separately, it is better to collaborate and to establish a comprehensive club. “Provide services for more students”, this is also the concept we emphasized when propagating. Look at our posters here. I think this is also the reason why we have won the favor of many students just at our beginning of establishment.

In addition, considering that apart from ordinary high schools like us, there are many representatives of international schools here listening to my speech, now I am going to introduce more detailly about how we can classify students going abroad and provide corresponding services. We know that most students who plan to go abroad are always certain about their application direction, i.e. what major they would like to apply for. Therefore, they will prepare for competitions and activities in a targeted manner during the first and second grades of high school. And from my perspective, the linguistics club can not only provide opportunities for students who want to learn linguistics, but can also be an excellent platform for conducting interdisciplinary research. For example, when we established the club, we planned to hold a field research during the winter vacation this year. There are currently two ideas for the content of the activity. One is to investigate the dialect changes of the residents of Mount Mei in Nanjing after they moved from Shanghai, and the other one is to investigate the relationship between adjectives describing the dishes on the restaurant menu and their prices. When considering the question of how to promote these reseach projects, I upheld the concept of “Provide services for more students” and designed a set of research propositions for students interested in different majors, for example:

  • Biology: the physiological differences of dialect, the physiological determinants of phonetic phenomena;
  • Computer and data statistics: how to obtain and analyze the corpus;
  • Geography: the geographical factor causing the phenomenon of regional phonetic differentiation;
  • Sociology, history: the evolution of dialects and the social problems it caused;
  • Economy: the relationship between adjectives and prices on the restaurant menu;
  • Politics, national customs, laws: how to formulate policies to protect dialects, etc.

I hope that by following this logic——proceeding from the actual needs of the students in your school——you will never be troubled by your unrealistic ideas any longer. And of course, if you don’t have such troubles currentely, I hope my sharing can help you broaden your ideas of society operation and gain more inspiration~

(B)Reference for the Design of Specific Activities

  1. Translation activities: As a linguistics society, there must be quite a few multilingualists here. Why not take advantage of this by inviting friends who are good at particular languages to undertake some worthwhile translation activities? For example, our society president Zhao has been in contact with Maggie O’Farrell, a famous British fiction writer, and has obtained non-commercial use translation rights for her 2020 fiction “Hamnet” in the name of expanding the horizons of Chinese rural children. However, you know that sometimes it might not be easy to get access the right of translation, so here I have some extra advice. You can download quality viedos from YouTube or Facebook, manually translate them and post them on domestic video channels, as intelligent translation subtitles are not yet widely available. Certainly, if you willing to set current smart translation technologies as your research direction, that would be another great idea. There are vlogers on bilibili and Zhihu sharing such technologies, you can compare them and choose the one you consider as the most suitable to use or promote~
  1. Field research: Linguistics is not only about learning languages, many social phenomena are also worth researching. The two fieldwork proposals I mentioned at the beginning mey serve as reference if you would like to organise relative activities. To introduce a little more details here, what we intend to do is to participate the fieldwork activity together, including interviewing, writing and distributing questionnaires, etc. Once we have collected the data and resources, we can choose different research topics as our interest, then integrate and analyse the resources and materials to complete our papers or reports. I believe that this experience will be very helpful in improving our academic skills, which is highly valued by the top schools all around the world, no matter what majors the paticipants are planning to take in their future studies.
  1. a guide material for beginners && a organised set of questions: Those of you who have participated in the competition will understand that exercising is a crucial part of the International Olympiad Linguistics. Though some of the past papers can be found on the internet, it is difficult to find (free) beginner’s guide material or exercise with organised topics. For students preparing individually, take me myseld for example, last year when there were no clubs or seniors at school to guide me, solving and figuring out the questions on my own was a quite difficult process, as it was sometimes impossible to gauge the difficulty of the questions as well as myy level of solving problems, and I didn’t even know what past questions are proper to choose to practice. I found that many of other IOLs had similar experiences, so I came with an idea that with our experience in the competition, we can set up a guide material for beginners and a organised set of questions for our members, so that their learning will be much easier and more enjoyable.
    In terms of the organization of the set of questions, my plan is as follows.
    ① In the first semester I will offer the club members an introductory training on the basic linguistics competition questions, with a frequency of one question a week.
    ② At the beginning of the second semester I will provide an integration of questions of various categories covering grammar, syntax, lexicography, phonetics, phonology, semantics, numerical questions, odd questions and teamwork questions, etc. The training will last for about a month or two, and may be accompanied by inviting previous contestants or linguistics-oriented undergraduates to deliver relative speeches or lectures on the topic.
    ③ I will organise a mock test and a team selection test for the competition prepation stage after March next year. All participants of IOLC from the whole school (not only limited to club members) can come and take part in the test, which can provide a reference for team formation and preparation.
  1. Academic material integration: I often envy some of the best long-established societies for their own unique academic material integration, which is the best treasure to pass on the next generations of members. The core club members update and enrich this integration with their knowledge, and then pass it on from one generation to the next, who can then pleasantly enjoy the wisdom of their predecessors. As a budding society leader, I cannot say for certain whether our academic pack will be in existence for a long time period in the future, but if you are willing to start this project as we do, I am very glad to share some basic ideas for you.

This is the table of contents of the handbook edited by our President for the would-be language students. As you can see, it starts with a basic introduction to sub-disciplines of linguistics, including phonology, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, etc. As many of our students will become English major students, hence he then introduces some specific research to Chinese language and English language. If you are preparing for the Linguistics Olympiad, you can also modify this part to integrate some of the problem-breaking ideas of the competition questions, for example, when solving numerical questions you should pay attention to the binary, while when you are solving grammar questions you should start with a comparison of the same morphemes in the corpus, etc. Finally, you could add some interesting extra topics such as psychology and sociolinguistics, dialects, or even how to get a hign mark in language exams (e.g. TOEFL and IELTS).

(C) Academic Resources and Access

  • Past papers: itccc official wechat
  • Scientific articles and videos: bilibili zhihu
  • Other materials: Senior Group/Junior Group sample questions and handbook, Chen Run’s “Beginner’s Guide to Linguistics”, NPCSC Linguistics Club competition questions, North American and Russian past papers ……
  • The following is the book list that we have compiled in our handbook for would-be language students, in which there are textbooks from top schools in China and around the world, as well as the recommended ones.

So, in what way should we share academic materials or promote and hold events? Here I have provided some ideas for you. For example, we can advertise through the club QQ group, the school public website and by putting up posters around campus. Regarding the format of the event, we can design offline presentations as well as organise some online lectures, so that even if some students cannot participate in the activity because of other arrangements of their own, they can watch the playback again later on. Finally, the easiest way to share your club’s activities is to upload group files and group albums, or, if you have a club WeChat number, ask a dedicated student to run it. In addition, uploading to online platforms such as bilibili and Zhihu is also a great option. For example, I uploaded the video of our last event to bilibili, and here is a screenshot of one part of it. As you can see, the site has a ‘navigation’ feature, meaning that I can post videos with the start time of each section, so that interested students can watch them as they are needed, which is really convenient.

(D) What can you gain by running a society?

Finally, I would like to get back to the underlying logic of running a society and discuss what the time spent working for a club can bring to you.
I know that actually not all of you are enthusiastic about fulfilling the ‘purpose’ of your application and doing more for the linguistic society, or perhaps you even started out with the idea that starting a club would bring you glory and add colour to your personal statement. But I think you definitely understand that, a full and authentic club experience will be greatly beneficial to your further education and even your life.
As the teacher in charge of our school’s Union of Societies once said, running a society is like running a company. At the beginning you need to define your goals and plans, you need to submit ‘cumbersome’ documents; you need to spend a lot of effort on publicity, during which you may face the helplessness of not being able to recruit enough members; during the process of operation you may encounter differences on ideas with other core members, and only through discussion and concessions can you reach a consensus; you may find that your initial ideas are too idealistic, and the reality forces you to revise or even abandon them.
You may suffer from sacrificing a lot during these days, but I hope you could understand that what you will gain in the end will not only be proficiency in organisation, but also an experience of meeting constant frustration and the grind of reality.

I hope that today’s speech has provided you some useful tips and ideas on how to run your society. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your patience to listen my long speech, and I wish all of you can gain a lot during operating a linguistic society!

The link of video of the sharing speech is:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lNJkJ-EkKsrSCof8yHfFTg

The link of video of our last event:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gF411a7Rh?share_source=copy_web

And here are my powerpoint slide:













Geography-Related Literature

Guestbook

Authors use the geographic perspective when crafting novels, stories, or other works of fiction. The relationship between people and their natural and constructed environments is often a key part of a story’s plot, theme, or setting. In some books, there will be a large number of descriptions of the natural environment, some books are even based on the exploration of nature as a plot clue. Deeply fascinated by these books, I would like to explore their individual and common features, and how their authors express clearly and perfectly through words about those shocking and touching themes they want to share.

I read two novels during the summer holiday, both of which are closely related to geography. Personally I consider them as typical of geography novels. In the following paragraphs, I would like to share my views on the two books, attempting to sum up the common features of novels of this kind.

I.Earth Science Novels

To begin with, I re-read Jules Verne’s Trilogy( Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas) - it is also them which were my earth science initiation reads that left a lasting impression on me. They are the typical of novels related to earth science, including adventure, science fiction, etc. Apparently, these compositions are characterised by a combination of imagination and modern science, and to some reflect reality to a certain extent.

①First of all, they were written under a background of the Second Industrial Revolution and colonial expansion, backed up by enormous industrial achievements, which, combined with Mr Verne’s magnificent imagination, made these works both realistic and prophetic of the future. For instance, before Verne, a few authors had already tried writing subterranean fictions. However, thanks to his thorough study of Victorian science, Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is considered as an outstanding one among all this type of book – his concept of a prehistoric realm (which is going to be introduced in detail in the following paragraph) still existing in the present-day world.

Another example of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is quoted from Wikipedia, which I found as a persuasive evidence for my argument: the diving gear used by passengers on the Nautilus is presented as a combination of two existing systems: 1) the surface-supplied hardhat suit, which was fed oxygen from the shore through tubes; 2) a later, self-contained apparatus designed by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze in 1865. Their invention featured tanks fastened to the back, which supplied air to a facial mask via the first-known demand regulator. The diver didn’t swim but walked upright across the seafloor. This device was called an aérophore (Greek for “air-carrier”). Its air tanks could hold only thirty atmospheres, however Nemo claims that his futuristic adaptation could do far better: “The Nautilus’s pumps allow me to store air under considerable pressure … my diving equipment can supply breathable air for nine or ten hours.”

②Second, Verne refers to many achievements of the Industrial Revolution and natural science research in his works, and integrates these esoteric inventive principles into the colorful storyline, making the extensive study of natural sciences live and popularize. For example, in Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is a genuine underground world which is filled by a deep subterranean ocean, and surrounded by a rocky coastline that’s covered with petrified tree trunks, the fossils of prehistoric mammals, and gigantic living mushrooms. At the same time, in the book, Verne discuss the possibility of reaching the center of the earth, basing on theories. He also introduced the protagonists to a variety of geological knowledge during the ‘journey’, including rocks and rock formations, pressure, volcanoes and so on.

③Third, from the perspective of plot, these compositions are often about travel and adventure, which is inseparable from the influence of the Great Navigation Age. The protagonists’ courage to take risks, pioneer the wilderness, and conquer nature has inspired generations of readers, and is also what moved me most when I was a child.

The characters in the novel have their own characteristics. For instance, Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is an eccentric, knowledgeable, calm and resourceful captain; Professor Aronnax has a great passion for scientific inquiry; while the whaler Nederland has a fiery and straightforward temperament. In Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is Professor Otto Lidenbrock, a hot-tempered geologist with radical ideas; Axel, a cautious young student; and Hans Bjelke, their resourceful and imperturbable guide. In Around the World in Eighty Days, the British gentleman Mr. Falk is as cool as a cucumber – despite the difficulties encountered during the journey, he never complains.
Besides the personalities, they also have a lot in common. First of all, they are very humanitarian and attach great importance to friendship. Mr. Falk spent a lot of precious time saving unknown women and insignificant servants, who also helped him later. Captain Nemo wrestles with sharks to rescue pearl divers; he also tearfully buries his dead companion under the reef. What’s more, they all have a strong spirit of exploration and have always adhered to their beliefs. Even if goals seem impossible to achieve, they never give up.

④Last but not least, social systems, the side effects of the Industrial Revolution, political revolution, etc. were also mentioned in these compostions, that is Verne attempting to provoke people to reflect on the society. Of course, as popular science writer, he used more descriptive than evaluation or satire, in order to present social reality to readers. The most impressive examply is the true identity of Captain Nemo, which was revealed in Verne’s later novel, The Mysterious Land. Born as an East Indian aristocrat, one Prince Dakkar, Nemo participated in a major 19th century uprising, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which was ultimately quashed by the British. After his family were killed by the British, Nemo fled beneath the seas.

II. Human Geography Novels

The second book I read was Chi Zijian’s “The Right Bank of the Erguna River.”(额尔古纳河右岸) This is a representative of a humanistic and geographical novel. With a 90-year-old Evenk woman recountig her life experience, the book reflects the development of the Evenk people in the past hundred years. This nation lived in the forest, survived under the grace and torture of nature, suffered from Japan’s invasion and experienced the Cultural Revolution. Under the “invasion” of civilization, they had to wander between nomadism and settlement. With a calm and gentle style and ethereal language, Chi Zijian recreates for us the hundred-year persistence of and cultural changes experienced by the Evenk people.

Many people say that this work is an epic elegy of a nation, while personally I think that it is also an elegy about a certain kind of wonderful life, an elegy about a certain kind of values and ways of life of human beings. In the book, people look up at the sky, indulge in rivers and mountains, fear the gods in their hearts, sing simple songs, born in the “sound of the wind”, and finally buried in the wind. In addition to the image as the main character, what is more moving is the changing white clouds, the twinkling starlight, the Shilen Pillar that allow people to see the sky, the reindeer, the moon, the shaman’s dance, the birch and pine trees, and the bright flowing water…… They are not only the background and basis of the characters’ lives, but also the other protagonists in the book. Together, they constitute a beautiful and fragile world, a mixture of joy and suffering, of sadness and happiness.

I greatly appreciate Ms. Chi Zijian’s writing, her way of expression is pure and gentle, as quiet as the snow in the north, integrating with the story she depicts. I think it’s especially important for a human geography or cultural writer to practice a narrative that has its own characteristics. Of course, as just mentioned, the description of the natural environment in the book makes this novel even more gripping.

Interestingly, there are comments on the Internet that this book is very similar to Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude“, which is also a book that I have always been willing to appreciate. It writes about the faces of the mountains, rivers, seas, continents, animals, plants, religious peoples and peoples of the Latin American. Through the fictionalization of the century-long rise and fall of a family, it integrates historical reality and fantasy, interprets the history and destiny of Colombia and even the entire Latin American continent for a century in an epic and magnificent way. In the colorful giant picture, there are not only incredible miracles, but also purest real life. From my perspective, I consider these two books as both the pinnacle of the geographical novels and the jewel of human literature as a whole.

Conclusion

To summarise, all geography-related novels closely combine their plot with the depiction of the natural environment. Through popular science novels, readers can appreciate a lot of science and technology; in cultural novels, there are a great number of descriptions of society and characters’ mind. These novels all discuss the relationship between man and nature, inspiring our enthusiasm for exploring nature or gratitude for it. They also look down on human civilization from the perspective of nature, which not only gives readers a refreshing reading experience, but also provokes us to think deeply.